Sunday was terrible. Message board is down on their website, not surprised. There was anarchy there about Sunday but zero response from APW. Pathetic.

Rained-Out Concert Disaster Leads To Successful Chargeback

By Laura Northrup
Sun Sep 13 2009
Consumerist

Ben wrote in a few weeks ago to share his successful chargeback after he and his girlfriend were rained out of one day of their three-day passes to the recent

All Points West festival in Jersey City. His story raises questions about the definitions of the term "rain or shine."

I wanted to write in about a recent success I had with a chargeback scenario that I recently had - and given the popularity of the event, I thought it merited a letter to Consumerist.

My awesome girlfriend got me one hell of a birthday gift this year: a pair of three-day passes to All Points West, the music festival put on by Goldenvoice (the guys behind Coachella) that takes place in Jersey City's Liberty State Park. Unfortunately, the weather was less than ideal. It rained for most of the day on Friday, and if you bought a single-day pass at the door that day, Goldenvoice also let you in to either Saturday or Sunday (it was the ticketholder's choice) for free. While I don't quite understand the logic behind this decision (the tickets said 'rain or shine,' no acts were canceled and people do have access to Weather.com), I simply accepted this and was happy to be at the festival.

Saturday was gorgeous - but Goldenvoice did absolutely nothing to clean up the parksite, leaving festival-goers to trudge through ankle-deep, manure-laden mud for the rest of the festival. Again, I was fine with this - shit like this really doesn't matter on the day where you're about to see My Bloody Valentine for the first day in your life.

But Sunday is where the poorly organized festival truly came to a head. We got to the festival at about 12:30 or so because I really wanted to see Todd Barry (he was performing around 1:30). It was pouring down rain - but Todd was going to be in a tent. My girlfriend and I bought ponchos, and began the 20 minute walk to Liberty State Park. By the time we got there, staff was on-hand with a megaphone telling people to return to the light rail station or ferry docking point to seek shelter - and that the festival wouldn't be opening its doors. My girlfriend and I waited in the pouring rain for two hours, and decided that it wasn't worth it to deal with this. Our tickets said 'rain or shine,' and Goldenvoice failed to prepare for the weather and deliver on its promise.

At 4:30, the doors finally opened, but at this point I was back in Brooklyn, enjoying the Internet backlash against APW via Twitter and Facebook. Another friend of mine was actually held captive on a ferry boat in the pouring rain - so I guess things could've been worse.

But what I couldn't believe was that after APW extended a perk to single-pass owners on Friday due to a little bit of rain (as opposed to the torrential downpour on Sunday), that nothing was being done for the cancellation of acts and general poor public relations that took place on Sunday. Details about the fate of the festival were kept to an absolute bare minimum on Twitter and the APW official site, and festival goers were kept in the dark.

I knew that if I attempted to get a refund through Ticketmaster, I would be absolutely screwed - the tickets said no refunds. But I didn't want a complete refund; I just wanted Goldenvoice to compensate us for what they did on Sunday.

After we got home (while the festival was still occurring), we requested a chargeback for 198 dollars - an amount equal to two single day passes, plus some of the ridiculous service fees leveled at us by Ticketmaster. The passes were purchased on my girlfriend's Chase credit card. A couple of days later, she received a phone call at work and confirmed the details of what happened: how Goldenvoice was issuing free passes left and right, how we didn't actually use our passes at the festival and how Goldenvoice didn't follow through on its promise of "rain or shine."

Today, her credit card was credited with the money. I'm glad we got paid back for tickets that we weren't actually able to enjoy, but I can't help but think about everybody else who was also ripped off by Goldenvoice.

Quote:


Ummm, what?

I guess it can be somewhat surprising when rain hits dirt, and it becomes MUD.

Does anyone recall the fact they did this same thing last year?

Does anyone remember how the park was back to normal within weeks?

Does anyone remember that it DIDN'T rain last year?

Everyone is so quick to point fingers, yet no one is pointing them in the right direction.

I would like to take this opportunity to not blame Healy, not blame the cops, not blame people who don't clean up poop, not blame the late night garbage pick ups and say SCREW YOU MOTHER NATURE!!!!!

How could you?

I was just at the park Monday & it was really disgusting down there. We went to the playground where they had the concert & it smelled like piss & was full of garbage & mud but there was alot of trucks around cleaning up.
Hopefully it gets cleaned up fast, what a shame of the mess they made. It probablly would of been worse if it didnt rain but the rain did make it more muddy.

Quote:

Is that smell from the port-a-potties or the toxic waste that's been stirred up? When I finished my bike ride there today, I had a funny taste in my mouth. No joke, is it safe to be in that park?

Maybe we could just talk the Broadway show into moving over until the grass grows back.

New Jersey's First Superhero
The Toxic Anenger - The Musical


I can almost hear the Bon Jovi music now...

Quote:

.... ooooohh that smell. Can't you smell that smell?

Hopefully Woodstock didn't stink as badly.

I did a run around the park yesterday and, even though I was at APW, I was still surprised by the amount of damage. The vast middle part of the part won't be the same until the spring. New grass doesn't take hold that quickly. It's going to take a lot of time and work.

I think it's awful that a private event can ruin the park for visitors for months, but it was just chance, a fluke of weather. If they hadn't had two days of rain, LSP would be looking good now.

BTW, a lot of damage came from the heavy equipment that the organizers used to move things. There are huge wheel marks in the grass everywhere. It wasn't just the crowds.

Woodstock was in a field in upstate NY. APW was on one of the most contaminated sites in the country.

I would be hesitant to roll around in chromium tainted mud.

The park was not DESTROYED and can easily be FIXED by the promoters who will pay out of their own POCKETS. You are going to give yourself a HEART ATTACK if you continue to COMPLAIN about every DAMN THING and posting about them with assorted CAPITALIZED words.

If you read the latter half of the article you will see why Sam Pesin, President of the Friends of Liberty State Park, is completely on board with APW. If that is not enough then there's comments like this: "We pride ourselves on leaving the park in better condition than how we found it," said producer Ken Tesler of Liberty Events Management.


It's public space put to good public use. That area of the park is way under utilized the 362 other days out of the year. I did not attend the music festival, but I do support LSP and I'm all for it.

I think it's an obscenity for a bunch of producers to destroy a park to make mega-bucks. It is an obscenity for those state officials who okayed it and I think it is an obscenity for "Friends" of Libert Park to have complied for a few pieces of silver.

In spite of all the glowing promises to the contrary we KNOW the park will look like it was bombed for the rest of the Summer and maybe longer.

Woodstock was in a PRIVATE field...the owner could generate as much mud as he wished...he could plow it the next year and plant crops or leave it a muddly mess.
Liberty Park is PUBLIC and will not soon be used as a cornfield.

Music festival leaves Liberty State Park a mess

The Associated Press

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - A music festival has left parts of the park near the Statue of Liberty a muddy mess.

Organizers of the All Points West festival say they're surveying the damage and plan to start reseeding the areas of Liberty State Park that were damaged.

Heavy downpours over the weekend, combined with heavy equipment and 70,000 concertgoers, destroyed the grass in sections of the park in Jersey City.

The muddy mess reminded many of the 1969 Woodstock festival.

Liberty Events Management producer Ken Tesler says the group prides itself on leaving the park in better condition than how they found it.

=================

After festival, park needs rehabilitation

Wednesday, August 05, 2009
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Trampled grass and a sea of mud remained at Liberty State Park in Jersey City after last weekend's All Points West festival, but organizers say they are committed to restoring the park.

"We pride ourselves on leaving the park in better condition than how we found it," said producer Ken Tesler of Liberty Events Management. "When there's damage like that, we fix it."

Because of the weekend's heavy downpour, the three-day rock festival, jam-packed with high-profile bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Coldplay as well as lesser-known indie groups, turned into a muddy mess. The mud, combined with heavy equipment and more than 70,000 visitors, destroyed some areas of grass.

The tremendous amount of rain in a very short time did not give the field time to recover, according to Tesler.

"This was insane. We had more rain in two days, between the set up and couple of days of the event, than we've seen in a very long time. This was not a normal situation, but it's not something we can't deal with."

Tesler said a team of site restoration experts are surveying the damage and plan to begin to add seedlings and fertilizer to the areas that need to be reseeded.

"With the amount of rain, you get to the point where the park can only soak up so much rain," he said. "There's always wear and tear but this time there was more than the average."

Prior to the event, Liberty Events placed a protective covering mat under the stage, which flattens grass but does not kill it.

"Even in places where there is mud, my understanding is that there's still grass underneath that," he said.

"In a matter of days, you won't know a stage was there," he said.

Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park, said the festival produces revenue for both the park, which gets a percentage of sales, and the state of New Jersey, which earns tax dollars from beer sales. It's also a good way to draw the public to the park, which is one of his group's goals.

Producers are donating $2 per ticket to the Friends group, a nonprofit dedicated to improving Liberty State Park, Pesin said. Ticket prices were $89 apiece.

"I am confident that these producers are extremely responsible people and I'm sure they will do an excellent job," he said.

For Pesin, the festival was the 1969 Woodstock rock festival all over again.

"The mud at this festival reminded me of Woodstock. Both had really good music and really good people enjoying. The festivals do give people hope for the future," Pesin said. "When people get together to have a shared positive experience, it's a worthwhile experience."

I am a MBV fan...but to me it wasn't even an organized noise..the mix just sounded f'ed. All I was hearing was a guitar autopanning left and right from afar...to all the people that claim you don't don't get it, I don't think the sound engineer was able to handle their idea of a wall of sound with that large of an event. Though I also do find it funny that it pissed off all the Tool fans.

Speaking of Tool, of course great set...but kinda pointless for them to bring out a second drummer. What's the logic when you have one of the best drummers in the world to bring someone else in and kinda bang around on a badly mic'd drum set.

Standouts for me were Heartless Bastards, St. Vincent, Silversun Pickups, The National, Elbow, Mogwai, The Black Keys

the band that I thought sounded the worst..Telepathe? wtf. They took forever to setup and then their vocals just sounded like 2 chicks who can't sing.

I assumed the smell was fertilizer that got angry when it got wet and muddy.

I'll add props for the underappreciated Elbow. An excellent outdoor festival band.

Silversun Pickups were great as well - most people probably missed them though as there were huge crowds to get back in after the rain Sunday. Elbow was fun - MGMT sounded fantastic. Listened to a couple of their songs on the way out after taking in most of Coldplay. Incredible to have a festivus like this in our backyard!

What was up with the smell though? Couldn't quite place it. Had a woodchip/fertilizer smell that permeated the entire park.

The MBV complaints are hilarious. I could have listened to that "noise" for an hour. I loved every minute of it. That they simultaneously amazed and pissed off people is a testament that they know exactly what they're doing and doing it well.

I am also a huge Tool fan, but the Tool Army are appropriately named.

I warned the people on this site that the youngster festival would be loud noise but if you kids had fun then it's ok I suppose. "Shoegaze" music sounds like country if you ask me.

That's sad about the grass and I usually don't like people wasting water on ornamental Plantagenet but we've had a lot of rain so that's ok too.

I love loud.

I like MBV but would never see them live again after their wall of sound left my ears ringing for weeks in the early 90s. I was seriously worried that I had permanent tinnitus. great way to reward your fans.

^^^
A less defensive and snotty way of saying what I wanted to say.

Quote:

While the only reason I went, I must admit MBV may have been a weird choice for this event.

I thought they were amazing, people I know who like them thought they were amazing. We were probably a minority.

I would venture to guess at least 50% of the people watching them had never heard of them prior to this.

Not your cup of tea- yes.

Horrible- no.

Quote:

That's weird because their sound is considered a HUGE influence on multiple genres of music, and their stage presence could be considered part of what ended up the name for the genre they helped pioneer, SHOEGAZE.

It's going to take a few weeks for the grass in Liberty State Park to grow from all the mud and dead grass. I spent Tuesday until Friday helping get one of the art pieces setup and today was spent taking one of the stages apart. Mud is everywhere, at least it is drying up.

oh god My Bloody Valentine was HORRIBLE!!!!!!!! sounded like a 5 year old that got an electric guitar for christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and they have ZERO stage presence..

Jay-Z was by far the best of the whole weekend

My girlfriend and I had a great "staycation" last weekend. I'm very happy to have supported something that people want to come to JC for, and most seemed to have a good time.

Friday we walked to see Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs; who were fun and we saw part of Jay-Zs show. It was nice that he started out with "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" but we headed out to the beer garden before his set was over.

Saturday we spent most of the day there after a few beers at the beer garden and saw a bunch of bands. I enjoyed seeing My Bloody Valentine long after their groundbreaking CD "Loveless" back in the day. My girlfriend wasn't so crazy about how the wall of sound made her nauseous (hence the subject). Tool were great and made me understand why some bands that I like but am not crazy about are great outdoor headliners.

Sunday we both enjoyed Echo & The Bunnymen. They are better indoors (they were great at Radio City earlier this spring) but still fun at a festival. Despite all of the mud and rain the crowd and staff were good natured. The only negative thing about the crowd happened when an idiot jumped into the spotlight area and was screaming at those who tried to calm him down. It took about 6 staff to get him to leave while he kicked at them and screamed, "I am rich" and other things. After this, I really understand the utility of the Taser. Anywho, it wan't a big deal and Coldplay were great. According to my girlfriend they were worth the cost of the whole 3 day weekend. The highlight was them coming out into the mudhole ridden crowd and doing a few songs about 20 feet from our spot just outside a mud pond.

So it was a fun time for a couple old JC habitues. I hope other JC residents got over the weather and had a similarly good time.

There's only one more day to try and win free tickets to All Points West Festival! Just click or cut and past this link to try and win: http://rumbum.com/sections/10-music---culture/posts/250

Still Have 2 tickets for friday.

175 for the pair

PM me!

Quote:

It looks like one of the guys was hoping Coldplay would be getting subbed out by now when he bought those sunday tickets.

How will Jay-Z affect the type of crowd that shows up? I was at Rock the Bells and it was rough. However, there's a lot of indie bands for people to get through if they are only going for Jay-Z.